The Migratory Guests Arrive

I have added another two months to the famous movie Come September’s title and made it Come November – a month that brings us our guests from the frozen and freezing frontiers of Siberia, Central Asian Republics and Mongolia. Yes I am talking of the thousands and thousands of the migratory birds that evade the sever winter conditions of their natural habitat and come to rather lesser cold climate of Pakistan. We will be host to these beautiful birds till March-April, when they again fly back to their homes when it is relatively warm out there.

One of these birds is the Houbara Bustard – a majestic bird on the verge of extinction which along with others flies from faraway lands, as far as 5000-6000 kilometres from Central Asian Republics and even China, and land in a numerous wetlands stretched from D I Khan in the north, Ucchali in the Salt Range to down south in the Cholistan Desert. These Bustards fly at an amazing speed and make to Pakistan in just about 5-7 days.

With the arrival of Houbara Bustard, the rich and famous from the Gulf States also start to arrive into Pakistan with their teams of falcons, specially trained to hunt the bustards while in flight. I was once deputed to accompany a high profile royal dignitary who had come for the Bustard hunting. They had camped in general area Jhampir near Thatha in the Sind province. Each day they would go out with their falcons and come back with a few hunted Houbara Bustards.

Besides Houbara Bustards, Flamingos, Swans and many other species of birds like the Marbled Teal, White-headed Duck, Eurasian Spoonbill, Dalmatian Pelican throng the wetlands in Pakistan. The migratory birds’ arrival in Pakistan provides an opportunity for the bird watchers to flock the wetlands and enjoy their presence amongst themselves. Once on a reconnaissance in the areas south of Rahim Yar Khan, I also got a chance of bird watching of a large flock of migratory birds perched on an artificial lake in Sandh and Gabbar villages inside the desert. Once they took off, it was a breathtaking lifetime scene to watch them flying, rather floating against the blue sky majestically. It was here that I saw black swans flying overhead me with their grace, charm and majesty.

For bird watchers, the time is now to watch these beautiful guests of our perched in almost all wetlands of Pakistan.

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About Jalal HBI am a free lance writer and blogger. I hold an MBA (Executive - HRM), besides being a B Sc (Hons) and BA (Gold Medalist). I have studied in Lahore's premier Government College and served on a senior executive position and has a vast experience of administration, human resource management, security management and town planning.
My interests are photography, landscaping, gardening and philately. My selected photos are shared on Flickr as Jalalspages.
I also operate an exclusive website on Pakistan “Pakistanpaedia”, which is a rich mini paedia of Pakistan and can be referred as a resource site on all matters related to Pakistan. I also contribute my views on his travel experiences and concerns about environment, people, and burning issues in my blog Jahojalal.
I also maintain four more blogs specific to Management Matters and Philately. The third blog “Fire Within” is a forum where he expresses his concerns related to society, Pakistan and any issue that heart burns. Hobby Shobby is my latest blog which is a hobbyists' lobby for almost all possible hobbies around the world.

One Response to The Migratory Guests Arrive

11 2006 Songbirds use multiple sources of directional cues to guide their seasonal migrations including the Sun star patterns the earths magnetic field and sky polarized light patterns. Experiments over the last 30 years have failed to resolve the fundamental question of how migratory birds integrate multiple sources of directional information into a coherent navigational system…………………..See Also …… She was able to demonstrate that the birds calibrate their magnetic compass based on polarized light patterns at sunset and sunrise…The research appears in the Aug.